Music with its roots in serialism, "new complexity," set theory or academic pan-tonalism has a reputation for being dry, acerbic stuff. A movement that has inspired dense and visually beautiful scores that can admittedly tax the cognitive abilities of the listener. So when KatayoonHodjati dove into the deep end of Brian Ferneyhough's lush textures of bass flutes there was the unexpected awe of talent, ability and musical extremes forming a compelling answer to why listen to this body of music. This is compelling material.

Over the span of solo performances that followed came the reinforcement of how this music thrives in presentation. Guy Werner's video accompaniment - realized in real time in response to the dynamic contours of each performance - added surprising depth to a music more often presented in drier settings. The juxtaposition and association of video image set against the brutal focus these pieces demand from the performers made for an inviting mix of media that was attractive on multiple levels.

The tension of Jason Eckart'sStill, a study of multiphonic technique for the baritone saxophone, made particular demands of Brian Sacawa's abilities to control sustained tones right on the brink of slipping into a chaos beyond control. A tension that was a beautiful mix of tranquility and complexity.

Milton Babbitt's swinging nod to set theory All Set closed out the evening. A piece I experienced from behind the piano and over a sequence of rehearsals leading up to the performance. The final performance achieved a loose, relaxed quality as one finds their way through this high-tempo, atonal work of pre-bop. The big band timbres of the instruments and the feel of the rhythm section brings an off kilter energy to the angular licks and serial lines that make up the harmonic and melodic material. While Babbitt and his associates have formed an aesthetic with a reputation for being "serious" and "daunting" it is works like this, and performances such as those featured by the Mobtown Modern, that reveal "fun" and "compelling" to a body of music that spans as full a spectrum as any movement. And there are many reasons to listen to it.

Monday, December 15, 2008

The E Flat Mixolydian augmented 4 3% wide Scale. Featuring the 1236-cent "octave." A harmonic equivalence with the bite of being over a sixth-tone larger than the 2/1 frequency ratio of its decidedly more consonant, non-stretched cousin.

The solo viola works featured by Alexander Bruck venture into a suspended state where the smallest gesture brings enormous gravity. This was particularly the case with Hiram Navarrete's wonderful Untitled piece recently composed for Bruck. Within a generous expanse of time, the angle of the bow as either hair or wood make slight contact with the string runs along an expansive sense of timbre within a sonic set confined to minute details. Son de la Roma by Carlos Iturralde exposes a similar, stark soundscape with a mix of plucked and bowed timbres at the core. Zona 2, for viola and electronics, by Ivan Naranjo brings amplified materials into the mix while still retaining a focus on sound emerging from the smallest details. Bruck offered focused, intense performances that pulled the ears into profoundly quiet spaces that nearly merged with the sound of passing cars outside the building or the slight hum of the refrigerator in the back of the Red Room.

Jacob Wick and Andrew Greenwald opened the evening with a short set of improvised material similarly focused upon a texture of slights. Wick explored the passage of air through a trumpet, at times obstructed by a turned valve or mute. At other times the rush of breath was released through the dissembled pieces of the instrument. Greenwald added the sound of friction-based percussion to the soundscape. Much of this music existed at a volume level that often signals the perceived "ending" in free improvisation. This pair managed to sustain these textures with confidence while navigating several organic textural shifts.

The evening concluded with an improvised trio of focused, microscopic sound. A collaboration that came naturally with these talented improvisers so well matched together. The sounds of music from passing cars outside offered a sharp contrast that melted in with the sounds of the plumbing in the building and the bowing of a wood block set upon a drum head.

These are old source tapes, not for the casual Steve Lacy fan. But they are filled with interesting details about the state of this quintet and their approach toward improvising withing Lacy's compositions during this period. The rhythm section of Carter and Tyler with Aebi often adding in to the texture with cello is a particular area that catches these ears. The compositions themselves are also something to drink in. Steve Lacy fashioned an incredible sound and one can hear its growth through these recordings.

This one completely defies expectations. In a good way. And expectations were pretty high when reaching for this disc. Private Dances is filled with beautiful moments and ideas that "dance" with a translucence of melodic and harmonic ideas creatively and formally developed with the discipline of a writer's sense of pace and editing. The Day Revisited is a particular treasure within this collection of gems as a just intonation ensemble work that unfolds with one delicious bend after another. The solo piano music has a Satie-esque sensibility beautifully realized by Sarah Cahill. Enthusiastically recommended.

Far too many folks I respect and read in various online communities profess a profound regard for Radiohead for me to continue to ignore this group. And I confess to being more than a little behind in warming up to the band named after the Talking Heads song that inspires the same kind of regard for me that so many express for Radiohead. That said, this is my second spin of OK Computer and I'm "getting it" a little more than the first spin. In many ways, this collection of songs hits the same mark as Remain in Light or Fear of Music in the way that I remember those "classics" of my own youth. That is, it feels and sounds good and invites further listening - the effect that vaulted its position of adulation more than ten years ago when it was released. And the years haven't taken too much of a toll on this sound either.

Every once in a while a good idea gets legs, or several dozen, and develops into an annual rite of passage at the end of the calendar. First performed in New York in 1992, Unsilent Night has grown into a global community of grass roots organizers who draw people out of their warm homes and into the chilly night bearing boom boxes for a mobile installation of Phil Kline's 4-track composition. The sharp contrast of a mob armed with noise devices against the softly ambient, loosely synchronized sound that enfolds and travels with the silent carolers offers a welcome antidote to the saccharine-laced consumerism that saturates the solstice.

The friendly conversation, puzzled responses from other denizens of the street and generous vibrations of music and community fold into the prevailing ambiance of Unsilent Night. The sharp chill dissipating with the forward movement of the walking harmonic drone. The sounds of Unsilent draw upon processed bells and voices for a softly rippling and droning texture that thrives upon the decidedly lo fidelity sources of cassettes and cheap speakers.

With a stroll into and through Baltimore's Penn Station the change in temperature and acoustics was pronounced. As was the sense of tension in participating in a peaceful, yet organized, manner in a place of public transportation in this era of "heightened security." "You're just passing through, right?" came the directive disguised as a question from the transit officer on the scene. In an age when most retire to their homes and participate with one another through isolated home entertainment experiences it is telling that genuine community activity is routinely regarded as overtly subversive. The generosity of having one of four tracks offered up in cassette or CD-R format for free - without conscious branding or visible sponsorship - is almost unsettling in its refreshing gesture of good will. The kind often alluded but rarely offered without strings. And yet it is a good idea. A good piece. One that has developed legs as a bona fide tradition that grows on the strength of intrinsic quality over marketing savy.

The E Flat Pythagorean Mixolydian 2% wide Scale. It's interesting how the process of adding 2% of the cents-value of the Pythagorean intervals falls within a couple hundredths of a cent (when rounding off to two decimal places).

Monday, December 08, 2008

The E Flat Pythagorean Mixolydian diminished 4 mapped to the Square-root-of-2 Scale. This scale features the half-sized version of the Pythagorean Comma (531441/524288, or 23.46-cents. In Square-root-of-2 space it becomes 11.73-cents) between the major third and diminished fourth. This creates the oddity of a fourth degree that is physically lower than the third degree in an ascending scale.

After a few spins this disc is beginning to make a deep impression. Jason Kao Hwang is an excellent improvising violinist and composer. The four compositions found on this disc showcase that fact along with Hwang's considerable creativity at spinning original materials. Then there's this quartet. These guys are tight. Hearing interwoven lines between Bynum's horn and Hwang's fiddle is positively inspired. With textures that wash between group and individual playing, lyrical melodic lines and loose grooves with an ear for the territory between multiple musical traditions. All with the aggressive edge that marks the New York caliber of jazz playing. And all these qualities sneak up on the ears as each subsequent impression grows larger than the last.

A big, double-ensemble and double-CD packed with a feast of conduction and large scale free improvisation. It is good and it leaves even my ravenous appetite for this kind of thing sated. Even with both ensembles performing simultaneously, there's an awareness of texture that allows for range between individual soloists and the numerous excellent improvisers occupying this one stage. Beautiful documentation of what had to have been a thrilling live performance.

Take the history of jazz. Place in blender. Set to funk. And just try not to tap your foot or otherwise move to the creamy, thick and satisfying grooves that pour out from the Syncopated Taint Septet. Even as Skerik's signature squeals and honks pile on it's the compositions and arrangements credited to the members of this ensemble that makes up this sound. Hans Teuber's "Too Many Toys" in particular has a strong appeal. Music steeped in history that never feels burdened by it.

Saturday, December 06, 2008

The A Flat Pythagorean Construct No. 1, Lydian Mode - in Square-root-of-2-space Scale. The 3 (Pythagorean systems are 3-limit just) is divided by the square-root-of-2 until one arrives at an interval between the root and the square-root-of-2 "tritone."